A high-country Canterbury farmer has come up with $5000 to pay Rob Moodie's court fine, saving the lawyer, formerly known as Miss Alice, from prison.
Dr Moodie was suspended from practising for three months and fined after he was found guilty of contempt two weeks ago by the
High Court in Wellington for releasing the Army's suppressed Butcher Report to the media in 2005.
The report, produced by a civil engineer for the Army's 1994 court of inquiry into the collapse of the bridge it had built for King Country farmers Margaret and Keith Berryman, listed serious design and construction faults that had led to the death of beekeeper Kenneth Richards.
Although the report placed responsibility on the Army for the bridge's collapse, the Army failed to tell the 1997 coroner's inquest about it, instead claiming under oath that "there was nothing in the entire construction of the bridge that contributed to the accident".
When he received the decision, Dr Moodie changed his name back from Miss Alice - a name he donned, with women's clothing, to protest against what he said was the patriarchal nature of the judiciary - and threatened to give up law.
He also vowed he would never give a cent to the Ministry of Justice and said he would go to jail first.
On Tuesday, shearer and high-country farmer Mark Feary of Oxford paid the fine in Christchurch.
Mr Feary said he paid it because "the Crown, in the form of the military, and latterly Her Majesty's courts, are practising and promoting anarchy in their treatment of the Berrymans and Dr Moodie".
Mr Feary said he was relieved Dr Moodie had changed his mind about retiring from law.
"We urge the public to do whatever they can to help bring this travesty of justice, not only to the Berrymans but also to Rob, to an end."
Dr Moodie said: "It's nice to get the fine out of the road because what would have happened is that some dickhead from the courts would have wanted to be 'the man' that put me behind bars."
- NZPA
